‘Online predator’ sentenced to life in Northern Ireland after girl’s suicide

A 26-year-old “online predator” was sentenced to life in prison on Friday by a court in Belfast, Northern Ireland, following the suicide of one of his 70 victims, a 12-year-old girl living in the United States.

Alexander McCartney, who acknowledged the 185 accusations against him, is “the first person in the United Kingdom to be convicted of murder when his victim resided in a foreign country,” said a Northern Irish police official, Eamonn Corrigan, who denounced a “disgusting child predator.”

“The victims were located in the United Kingdom, Ireland and other European countries, as well as in the United States, Australia and New Zealand,” declared Judge John Ailbe O’Hara, adding that the defendant, who had been arrested three times before being imprisoned, lacked mitigating circumstances.

Alexander McCartney, a former computer science student, posed as a teenager to contact girls from all over the world on platforms such as Snapchat, before blackmailing them.

He operated all night long from the bedroom of his family home in Newry, Northern Ireland.

Cimarron Thomas, 12, who lived in West Virginia (United States), committed suicide in May 2018 to avoid having to comply with Alexander McCartney’s demands that he involve his younger sister in sexual acts.

Eighteen months later, his desperate father Ben Thomas also took his own life.

Sadism

The judge denounced the “sadism” of the accused. “He had no remorse, he ignored multiple opportunities to stop,” he stressed.

Announcement

“McCartney is nothing more than a disgusting child predator who posed as a girl on the Internet and who groomed, manipulated and sexually abused his victims (…) to satisfy his sexual perversions and those of other online sexual offenders” Corrigan said.

“It caused serious and lasting harm to what we estimate to be 3,500 victims and their families,” he stressed, adding that police had attempted to identify as many victims as possible, but that as time passed, some will never be found.

Alexander McCartney, who listened to the verdict with his head bowed and without reaction, is “the first person in the United Kingdom to be convicted of murder when his victim resided in a foreign jurisdiction,” according to Corrigan, who thanked the foreign authorities who had collaborated in the complex investigation, including the United States Department of Homeland Security.

The convicted man had pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter in the Cimmarron Thomas case and dozens of other crimes.

He was sentenced to life in prison with a non-negotiable sentence of 20 years.

He admitted blackmailing, making and distributing “indecent images” and inciting children to engage in sexual acts.